Phillies Notebook: So far, so good with Bryce Harper the first baseman

PHILADELPHIA — All of two games into new career phase, Bryce Harper is drawing raves for his proficiency at first base. And they’re not only coming from the usual fan blogs and cheering Twitter users.

Count Rob Thomson as a fan of the way Harper has tackled his new fielding responsibility.

Asked Monday whether he’d already seen enough of Harper at first base to form a solid opinion of him there, the Phillies manager said, “I have, yeah.”

Naturally, that opinion is that as the Phillies’ first base situation goes, so it will go with Bryce as the first option.

“He really played well. Just the diving plays and fielding ground balls effortlessly and under control and calmly,” Thomson said of Harper’s two games at first base during the Cleveland series. “He looks really good so far.”

That assessment apparently included the catch Harper made on a foul pop in which he ended up tumbling into a photographer’s pit near the stands, yet came out fully intact.

“His reactions were great,” Thomson said. “He makes that play in the camera well that scared everybody — three accountants passed out upstairs — but other than that, we’re good.

“He probably hasn’t had every situation thrown at him yet, but the one thing I liked the other day is (Cleveland’s Steven) Kwan tried to bunt on (Edmundo) Soto in the seam and Bryce thought about going after it, but then he did the right thing by just going to the base.”

On that play, Thomson added, Harper followed his natural baseball instincts in letting second baseman Soto get to the bunt while he got back to first base to take the throw that would edge Kwan at the bag. Instincts … in the second MLB game he ever played at first base.

“We tell those three guys, pitcher, first baseman and second baseman, if a right-hander or left-hander bunts in that seam, then if the first baseman can take it himself and tag the runner, go ahead,” Thomson said. “But if there’s anything in your mind that says, ‘Ah, I’m really not sure,’ then go ahead and get to the base and let those other guys (handle) it. So he did the right thing.”

That said, Harper was back at his designated hitter role Monday night for the opener of a three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles at Citizens Bank Park. But Thomson indicated nothing should be read into that other than he wanted to give recently promoted Jake Cave a look at first while utility guy Josh Harrison took third base, thereby giving Alec Bohm a needed night off after alternately manning both corners of the infield much of the season.

Thomson said Harper would likely be back at first base Tuesday and perhaps Wednesday, then after a Thursday offday could be thought of as the go-to first baseman the rest of the way.

“I think the more he plays and the more he gets his body in shape to play every day he’s probably going to play most of the days at first base,” Thomson said. “It opens up the DH spot for sure, where you can get (Nick Castellanos) off his feet and (Kyle) Schwarber off his feet, or Bohm, whoever. So it gives us a little more flexibility with that.”

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The bullpen, perhaps the strongest facet of this Phillies team hasn’t been the same lately with both Jose Alvarado and Seranthony Dominguez on the injury shelf. But that soon should change.

Thomson hinted Dominguez is on the verge of returning, perhaps as early as Tuesday. “Good chance, but we’ll see,” Thomson said. “He’s here today. If he plays catch and feels good we’ll probably activate him tomorrow.”

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Thomson on the rolling Orioles, the hottest team around: “For one, their bullpen is fantastic. They’ve got some really high velocity power guys come of their bullpen and then they take care of the baseball. They don’t make errors, and they can cover a lot of space because they’ve got some speed.”